Fall 2013 Newsletter - Village of Piermont

VOLUME XXXXIII NO. 2
U
PUBLISHED BY THE PIERMONT CIVIC ASSOCIATION
FALL 2013
Future Of The Piermont Marsh
ntil he was asked about the
plan to eradicate Phragmites in
the Piermont Marsh, Governor
Cuomo’s Special Advisor for the new
Tappan Zee Bridge easily answered
every question about the huge construction project. That one left him
stumped.
This was in April at the Piermont
Civic Association (PCA) sponsored
information meeting about the bridge.
Brian Conybeare, the Governor’s man,
admitted to the standing room only
audience at the Village Hall that he’d
never before heard the word Phragmites but he would get back to them
about it. Phragmites, he was told, is
the dominant plant in the marsh.
Since then Piermonters, including
Mayor Chris Sanders and the Village
Board, were stunned to learn that yes,
the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) planned to use
toxic herbicides to kill a large swath
of the Phragmites in the Marsh in an
attempt to bring back native grasses. If
a member of the PCA’s executive com-
mittee had not asked the question, the
program might be underway today.
The plan to kill the Phragmites is
part of a peace pact the Tappan Zee
Bridge Authority and DEC had made
with two environmental groups.
Under it, the groups, Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper, promised not to
slow the construction with suits over
environmental issues. In return, the
Authority pledged more than $11 million in funding for assorted projects to
enhance the environmental quality of
the river.
Given just a few weeks to come
up with a list of projects, the Hudson River Nature Estuary Research
Reserve (HRNERR), a partnership
between NY State and the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), and NY
State DEC, suggested a number of
plans that had been shelved for lack of
funding. Among the most longed for
on its list was eradicating Phragmites,
an “invasive species” from the Piermont Marsh in order to re-introduce
“native” plants. The goal was to create
a more diverse, healthy eco-system.
When an environmental organization says it wants to bring back native
plants and increase biodiversity, most
people nod and say “wonderful.” But
rarely do they ask, “How?” a local
environmentalist pointed out. Phragmites eradication most often involves
pouring hundreds of gallons of toxic
herbicides into existing waterways
and ecosystems. That’s usually followed up by a “controlled burn” of
what survives, followed by years of
additional chemical application as the
Phragmites returns. As it turns out,
“invasive species control” is a powerful million dollar segment of the pesticide industry in the United States,
and it has finally made its way to our
shores, via the very institutions that
we most look to for protection of our
environment.
Piermont Landing’s Marthe Schulwolf has long been an enemy of chemical warfare against plants. Back in
continued on page 15
Piermont Marsh from Paradise Avenue, before and after Phragmites eradication. Rendering by Nathan Meyers
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President’s Corner
I
was watching “West Side Story” in Flywheel Park on an
oddly chilly August night when the film’s star-crossed
lovers began singing, “There’s a place for us, somewhere
a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air….”
them are off duty Village police officers. They run an outstanding athletic program for our kids.
Our village has scores of skilled people who willingly give
away their expertise. Piermont’s churches could not run without them. The Piermont library depends on them. Our VFW’s
volunteers remind us of the sacrifices Piermonters have made,
and the historic role of our pier in World War II. The Piermont Historical Society honors our past. It saved and restored
our precious railroad station. Volunteers run our Community
Garden, and twice rebuilt it after devastating storms.
I looked around at the hundred or so fellow Piermonters
sprawled on blankets and sitting in lawn chairs and wondered how many others at that moment realized that we had
found our place, a place with peace and quiet (except for
traffic and shouting bicyclists) and open air.
After Superstorm Sandy, many of us thought much of
what we had loved about the village was gone and we would
never get it back. It turns out we were underestimating the
determination of our restaurants and other businesses to
rise from the ruins, and the extraordinary devotion of Piermont’s DPW and many volunteer organizations.
What’s amazing is that we continue to create new volunteer groups. We now have a very active Chamber of Commerce, formed to revive business after Sandy. Even more
recently organized is the Piermont Marsh Alliance. These
people are dedicated to protecting our wetlands.
Hillary Clinton took the African saying, “It takes a village
to raise a child,” to title a book. We could say, “It takes many
volunteers to make a village.”
I’m sure I must be overlooking some worthwhile groups.
If I have, it is unintentional and I apologize. I almost forgot
the Piermont Civic Association. It’s been around for more
than half a century. We’re the people who publish this newsletter, and showed the outdoor movies this summer.
If you start a list of those, you have to put the men and
women of the Piermont Fire Department and its Auxiliary at the
top. From the moment the storm roared in, these people risked
everything to save our lives and property. For weeks afterwards,
they offered free meals and shelter to those who needed it.
These volunteers and groups have made a place for us,
all of us.
~Bob Samuels
Put Mayor Chris Sanders next on the list of Piermont’s
outstanding volunteers. Yes, we pay him and the Village
Board but the amounts are very small, really just tokens. The
Mayor was everywhere during and after the storm. Even in
normal times, he and the Board put in long, often tedious
hours in meetings. And, speaking of tedious hours, let’s not
forget the men and women who give up their evenings to
serve without pay on our Planning and Zoning Boards.
Piermont’s Police Athletic League is another group of volunteers who deserve our thanks and admiration. Many of
The Newsletter is published three times a year by the Piermont Civic Association, Box 454, Piermont, NY 10968
Editor: Margaret Grace
Contributors to this issue: Richard Benfield,
Fred Burrell, Ron Derven, Betsy Franco Feeney,
Susan Freiman, Joan Gussow, Mary Lukens,
Nathan Meyers, Grace Mitchell, Tom O’Reilly,
Bob Samuels, Sally Savage
Advertising: Charlene and Dick Stern
(845) 359-0032
This issue of The Piermont Newsletter, and many past
issues, can be found online at http://www.piermontny.com/newsletter/ thanks to volunteer Richie Stark.
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I
confess to feeling deeply smug each
time I encounter the fact that electricity generation produces 40% of
our nation’s CO2. Coming in sweaty
from work in the garden on the morning of the hottest day of summer to
date, I went into my late-husband’s studio where the meter for my solar electric system is ticking away. The meter
was running backwards! I was sending
power to O & R. Now I don’t have to
feel even remotely guilty about turning
on my inefficient air-conditioner. I’m
not helping heat the planet!!!
Like many people, I think, I had considered solar for a long time. I say “considered” meaning that I thought letting
the sun produce your electricity was a
great idea, but the up front price (down
now to the neighborhood of $25,000
from the neighborhood of $50,000—
neither of them neighborhoods I could
aspire to) had always put me off. And
because I am pathologically conservationist, I felt it would take me years
to earn my money back from the sun
because I use relatively little electricity. All my lights are fluorescent. I have
a gas stove, a gas water heater, and a
gas/hot water heating system. I have
no television, flat screen or otherwise.
Moreover, I almost never turn on my
air-conditioning since there is usually a
redeeming breeze from the river in my
living room and—as a native Californian—I’m not overly heat sensitive.
And then, one day last year , in an
issue of a newsletter on sustainable
living, I saw a story about a company
Going Solar In Piermont
called Sungevity, based in Oakland,
California, that offered solar leasing with no upfront cost!!!! I trusted
the source so I e-mailed the company
which—with surprising promptness—
e-mailed me back ready to set up a
phone call to explain everything and
see whether I was interested. And late
on July 3, 2012, I took a call from Marie
of Sungevity, .
After 45 minutes I realized signing on
to get solar from these folks was going
to cost me nothing, that I would have
16 solar panels on my roof and pay a
small steady fee each month (less than
my present electric bill) no matter how
much energy I used, etc. After which it
got too good to be true. I could recommend friends, and anyone who ended
up going solar earned me $1000. If I got
three people to sign up I got an Ipad.
Not only was going solar not going to
cost me anything, I was actually making money!
I told them to move ahead. I was
quite high at the prospect and began
to call friends to sign them up. At this
point in the process, many of those I
talked to were suspicious, including
my son. “Why don’t you do it Mom and
see how it works out.” I didn’t understand their suspicion. What could go
wrong? I wasn’t paying anything.
And after Marie looked at my utility
bills and I had filled out a NYSERDA
audit about my energy habits (did I
have an AC? What kind of appliances
did I have? Did I have a heating unit?
A programmable thermostat, power
strips? What kinds of windows did I
have? Were my doors weatherized?
Etc. ) Sungevity informed me that
for the next twenty years (the term of
the lease) $52.04 would be deducted
monthly from my bank account—
that’s $624 a year—and there would be
a small O & R charge for connecting me
to the grid.
My current yearly electricity cost
is over $700. And quite likely to go
higher, since O & R is heavily dependent on electricity from sources which
seem fated to have future costly environmental problems. So on November
20, last year, I signed up to go solar! I
had no idea how long it would actually take. As it happened, it took just
a few days over a year from my initial
inquiry.
But it was not a year in which I had
to do a lot except answer e-mails once
in a while, and sign papers from time to
time. Sungevity, on the other hand, had
a lot to do, because a solar installation
requires a lot of paperwork (something
that often discourages homeowners if
they think of going solar) I once got 10
documents and a checklist requiring as
they wrote “seven signatures and one
initial.” The other papers were informational. Twice I had to arrange to be
home, first at the end of July, when the
men from New York State Solar Farm
in Gardiner, NY, who did the actual
installation came to check out my roof
and attic and basement and take pictures, and then, months later, when they
continued on page 6
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Drew Ciganek’s Piermont
making you feel stupid.
He’s planted pineapple sage around his Bay Street home
to attract the hummingbirds. “It is one of their favorite
plants, you know,” he goes on, “Its red, blooms late in the
fall and can survive a couple of frosts. Hummingbirds that
are hanging out around here until the last minute can fill up
on them before they fly south.”
Drew, who is 61, says he picked up what others would
call an encyclopedic knowledge of local birds and wildlife
from his three older brothers. The Ciganek boys grew up
across from the marsh in a Paradise Avenue house. Drew’s
earliest memories are of fishing and hunting with them. “Getting involved with nature was just part of living there in the
1960s,” he says. “We were all outdoorsmen.” Drew’s brother,
Tom, was Piermont’s Justice for many years. He died in 2004.
The four of them and their pals hunted ducks in the
marsh. “We would jump shoot them, you know from a canoe
with one person shooting a shotgun and the other person
paddling. No, no dog. We didn’t need a dog. Everyone in
Piermont hunted ducks back then,” Drew recalls. “I don’t
believe it is legal now but it was when we were doing it. It
was a big part of my life at that time. We ate them and spit
out the buck shot.”
They also fished, caught stripers and perch and other fish
and they did lots of crabbing. “It was kind of like living in a
resort,” he remembers.
He doesn’t feel that way about the village anymore. To
him, Piermont is a paradise lost
Drew Ciganek. Photo by Fred Burrel
D
rew Ciganek had just come into his house after photographing hummingbirds in his yard on a nippy
October afternoon last fall. Hummingbirds in Piermont? That’s unusual, isn’t it?
“No, no,” he replies, “they’re are here.” When Drew tells
you something that is obvious to him, he does it without
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Drew says the bird population has dropped drastically
(as it has generally all over) since his childhood. He particularly mourns the lack of shorebirds. “When I was a kid there
were hundreds and hundreds of them. Today I’ll still see a
100, maybe 200 sandpipers on the tidal flats but I used to see
thousands of them there,” he says.
He partly blames the missing pier underbrush on the
decline. It had provided nesting shelter. “Storms cleared
it out and the village never replaced it. We tried to replant
some of it but it didn’t take because the soil wasn’t there,”
he complains.
Drew also bemoans the deterioration of the Sparkill
Creek. “I used to fish it for trout from one end to the other,”
he says. “The millpond behind the damn was 80 feet deep.
Now it is filled with silt.
“The creek is like one big drain today,” he continues.
“Every time it rains really hard it overflows with sewage. The big storms continually wipe out the plant life. It’s
because they’ve built too many parking lots and too many
buildings without any thought of what it will do to the environment. They don’t consider the extra water that will be
draining out of these places or the gas and oil that drips
from cars in those parking lots. It all gets washed down the
creek.”
In the old days, didn’t sewer lines run directly into the
creek and the river? “Yes, and not having that certainly is
an improvement,” he agrees.
You can’t find a more native Piermonter than Drew. Both
his parents grew up here. His mother was born in the bedroom he uses in the house he lives in now. His wife, the former Gina Gerlach, is also a native villager. Two of his three
children live here. The third lives far away in Sparkill.
Drew went through the Piermont schools, graduating
from Tappan High School in 1971. Like so many back then
he took a job in the pier’s paper mill,. After five years there,
he became a foreign car mechanic in a garage that was near
the post office. These days he works for a New York City
firm, repairing color copiers all over Westchester and Rockland counties.
He clearly loves the pier. When he’s not at work, you’ll
often find him there, either fishing or taking bird pictures.
He has hundreds of them. “I try to get a picture of anything
that flies,” he says. “When someone asks if I keep records of
what see, I say yes but it is a photography record.”
His brothers taught him what they knew about Piermont
wildlife. After all these years, does he think he now knows
more about it than they do? Drew takes a long pause to consider the question.
“Maybe,” he says finally.
~Bob Samuels
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Going Solar In Piermont continued from page 3
returned to actually install the panels
on the roof and the monitors indoors,
next to my circuit breaker panel.
And meanwhile they were very
busy—here’s a little of what was going
on.
Now that we’ve got the details from your
home visit, our Design Team will confirm
that your design is perfectly tailored to
your home and meets local building and
electrical codes. . . . Once the details are
confirmed we’ll create your solar plan set
that we need to submit to your local building department. This stage can take several
weeks while we get everything ready to go.
If required in your town, once the design
is complete, we will submit your plans for
structural engineering. . . .
In the meantime our Rebate and Interconnection Specialists will work to secure
permission from your utility to install your
solar system. And at the end of September, Jan
York, my project manager informed
me that I could expect my design to
be complete around the first week of
October. The drawings were being sent
out for an additional locally required
structural review, after which they
would submit the plan set to our Building Department for their review and
approval. We were moving along.
And then came Sandy. Several documents that needed signing languished
in my downed in-box; Marie gently
reminded me but her reminder too fell
into limbo. And when I got back on line
and reconnected with an explanation,
I signed, among other things, a final
lease agreement, but I also had a couple of questions:
First, we’ve just come through a horrendous storm here. I assume the solar
panels you’re going to install will stand
up to our new weather regime without
ripping my roof off. Second, I was without power for a
week, without heat and hot water for
longer. I understand that since I will be
interconnected with the utility, my solar
power will be cut off when the utility
goes blank. Is there any way that my
utility connection can be installed so
that I can cut off any outward flow of
power when the utility goes down so
that I don’t lose power but don’t electrocute the linemen? If not, is there anything in the lease
that says I can’t install solar panels (not
impinging on yours) that wouldn’t
have to be neutered just when they
were needed most?
A week later, Jan York replied
We had no accounts of problems
with roof integrity or the solar panels
themselves from any of our East coast
installations which is in the hundreds
so you’re good there. We are required
to design within highest gusting wind
loads in a region and apparently we
did the job because that was a whopping storm you just endured.
There are solar electric systems
that have battery back up capacity to
power certain critical loads for homes
but I don’t know of any leasing companies who provide them. The battery storage and losses add unpredictable factors when accounting for your
power production and usage. If you
were to purchase a system with battery back up, you could count on, at
least, a 25% increase in your upfront
cost plus replacement costs each 5 to 10
years. This usually discourages customers because, though your power
outage was lengthy, it is probably too
reliable to warrant the cost. A more
affordable approach to keep power
when the grid is down is to use a generator but those are fossil fueled. Whichever way you choose to go, your electrician will know to keep each source of
power from backfeeding into the others with autotransfer switches.
So I can have power in emergencies
if I want to invest in it. Now all I had
to do was wait to get my solar system
installed and approved. In early December O & R conditionally approved my
application, and when I checked in late
February, the installer was pulling my
permits and had a forecast installation
day of May 6.
New York State Solar Farms beat
their estimate. They began what turned
out to be a two day job on April 8, and
it was entirely painless for the homeowner. They were very young, very
competent and very neat, leaving me,
when they were finished with solar
panels on my roof which I can hardly
see, and with a 40 by 44 inch panel
holding a photovoltaic converter and
an electric meter. Now it was up to the
building inspector and O & R.
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On May 2, Jan York wrote that the system had passed inspection and it might
take “up to days” for O & R to clear the
paperwork—well no, up to weeks, perhaps. Months is more like it. I made a couple of inquiries in May, and by June was
convinced O & R didn’t want to lose me.
Finally on June 12, I was given permission
to turn a dial, throw a couple of circuit
breakers into the “on” position and the
system began functioning! I went solar!
Two final notes: When I go on line to
OurSungevity.com, I can quickly discover
how much electricity I am generating for
the day, the week, the month, the year, for
my lifetime on solar; and from the very
first call with Marie, I could see my house
from Google Earth as it would look when
the panels were installed. Both are examples of their smart website which is bright,
helpful and easy to use.
Second, although it’s sad that my solar
system does not keep me electrified if O
& R goes down in a storm as Sungevity
explained, I’m not yet working on trying to stay electrified during hurricanes.
Someone who heard me say that my solar
system wouldn’t save me from blackouts asked “So what’s the point of doing
it then?” “To help keep the planet from
warming,” I replied quite testily. It’s OK
to pay a bit less than I would normally pay
for electricity, and it’s nice that I’m about
to receive $1000 for a friend who went
solar in Nyack, but those are not the real
rewards. Feeling good about my relationship to the planet is.
~Joan Gussow
PALMER HAYDEN AND THE WOLF AT PIERMONT, NY
This spring the library received an intriguing inquiry from a docent at the
Knoxville (TN) Museum of Art who was searching for information about
a painting they had on exhibit in a traveling show of early African American art. The painting depicts a curious scene with a huge striped tail wolf
apparently running around an industrial building by a river, and is titled
The Wolf at Piermont, NY (n.d.). The docent wondered if this was a reference to some local folk lore or place like a train station or a jazz club! Local
references, to the railroad, the mountain, steamboats, the river, the factories,
obviously abound, but what on earth is this wolf about?
The artist was Palmer Hayden, who was born in Virginia in 1890, later
attended Cooper Union, and spent several years studying in France. He
became a part of the Harlem Renaissance, painting the everyday lives of
African Americans until his death in 1973. How did he connect to Piermont? Local inquiries have come up with speculation that the wolf refers to
the bottle of something that the two gentlemen in the foreground seem to
be sharing. Piermont was reportedly home to speakeasies during Prohibition and maybe Piermont produced its own brand of brew. But what did the
wolf have to do with it? And why would an artist from Harlem know about
it or care enough to paint it? It’s a real mystery!
Anybody know anything more?
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S
From The Library
eptember is library card sign-up month, so if you don’t
already have a card come right over with photo ID and
proof of address and we’ll make one up for you. The
card provides access to a multitude of services and materials, including e-books, audiobooks, e-readers, movies,
music, online classes, museum passes and even BOOKS!
We also have public computers, free wi-fi access, a fax
machine and a copy machine for your use. And the library
hosts a variety of free programs and events each month that
don’t require a card.
On Sunday, September 15, at 2 p.m., our own Marc Farre will
perform a rare acoustic concert of his intimate, melodic songs
in the Hudson River Room. Best known to many Piermonters
as the producer of the First Friday Film series, Marc is a serious musician/composer whose work has been described as
“intense and truly fantastic” (NPR) and “the musical equivalent of an art-house film” (Journal News). Don’t miss it!
The work of West Nyack poet and painter Gary J. Whitehead will be featured during October. On Sunday, October 6,
from 2-4 p.m., Whitehead will join us to read from his new
book of poems, A Glossary of Chickens, published by Princeton University Press. Best known for his writing, Whitehead
is also a skilled painter whose oils appear in private collections here and in the UK. A selection will be on display for the
month, and the reading will officially open the show.
Whitehead has published two previous books of poetry,
his work has appeared in The New Yorker and Poetry, and
was also featured on Garrison Keillor’s program Writer’s
Almanac. “Quietly witty, observant, and frequently sad,
this third outing from Whitehead sets itself apart through
understatement, and through the connections it keeps making between contemporary midlife dilemmas and the 19th-
century American literature…. The more contemporary
poems…sustain a personal gravity…it all holds together as
the record of a sensitive, careful, unfashionable, acoustically
gifted soul...,” says Publisher’s Weekly. Copies of the book
will be available for purchase and signing.
In November we will feature oil paintings by Meryl Toan.
Meryl is a Tappan resident who paints landscapes from her
imagination, inspired by her many walks around Rockland
County. In this show, she will focus on the Piermont Pier
and Marsh and Rockland Lake, hoping to give the viewer
an experience of both the sweep of the landscape and the
detail of the plants that inhabit it, together with the sense
of renewal that a walk outdoors brings. Meryl will host an
opening reception for the show on Sunday, November 3,
from 2-4 p.m. All welcome!
As part of the village Holiday Festival, the annual Gift of
Art Show Open House reception this year will take place on
Sunday, December 8, from 2 to 4 p.m. A number of local artists are invited to donate work to this show, and a percentage of all proceeds goes to benefit our programming budget. Works are generally small and affordable­—perfect for a
holiday gift that also gives back to the community. And the
reception is always lots of fun. Look for more information on
the event in coming months.
The First Friday Film Series’ October lineup is still in the
works, but make sure to mark your calendar for a special
feature on Friday, November 1, at 7:30 p.m. Wagner’s Jews
(2012), directed by Hilan Warshaw, is a fascinating, highly
acclaimed documentary about the notoriously anti-Semitic
German composer Richard Wagner. Strangely, many of Wagner’s closest associates were Jews—young musicians who
became personally devoted to him and provided crucial
help to his work and career. Who were they? What brought
them to Wagner, and what brought him to them? Wagner’s
Jews is the first film to focus on Wagner’s complex personal
relationships with Jews. Filmed on location in Germany,
Switzerland, and Italy, the film tells these remarkable stories
through archival sources, visual re-enactments, interviews,
and performances on film. Director Warshaw, a successful
violinist and conductor, will be on hand to answer questions
about his highly acclaimed documentary.
Make sure to check our website at www.piermontlibrary.
org for current information on upcoming events for children.
~Grace Mitchell
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The New TZ Bridge Reality Show
T
he new Tappan Zee Bridge will soon become a $32.billion TV special. Work on the massive project will be
broadcast live 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It
will become a five-year-long reality show.
A set of dedicated TV monitors will be placed at as many
as 10 locations on the bridge by Earthcam, a technology
company based in Hackensack. Once construction gets fully
underway, the cameras will be live on our website www.
newbridge.com,” said Brian Conybeare, spokesman for the
project. “Everyone can see the progress that is being made
24 hours a day 7 days a week. “ EarthCam also will edit the
images into a time-lapse movie.
By the middle of next year there will be 100 barges and 30
cranes clogging the waters between south Nyack and Tarrytown. Seen from Piermont’s Pier, the work will be a distant
blur, inscrutable even through field glasses. Private boats
will be kept away from the construction work.
But you can see it up close on your laptop. The images
will be delivered in high definition. You can follow an individual worker picking up something and carrying it to another place; you can watch trucks moving; cranes lifting.
Tappan Zee Constructors spokeswoman Carla Julian
said, “It’s going to capture everything. It’s going to be really
cool.”
A similar project by Earthcam shows construction progress on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The website http://baybridgeinfo.org/construction-cams#.T1p42PUsLAw gives a good indication of the way the new TZ
Bridge will be built.
Several thousand people will be hired to work on the new
New York bridge. There won’t be any casting call for actors,
but every construction worker on the job can hope for his
fifteen minutes of fame during the 43,800-hours of the TZ
Bridge Reality Show.
~Fred Burrell
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7/13/09 1:10:41 PM
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Piermont Community Garden Revival
Editors Note: The Piermont Community Garden, founded in 1995, was able to rebuild at no cost to the Village, with all volunteer
labor and donations of money and supplies. The Garden sends its warm thanks for all the community support that made restoration
possible.
BY THE NUMBERS
a9,000 bricks
a120 volunteers (over one weekend)
aover $9,000 raised in donations
a360 feet pipe for irrigation
a3 tons sand and crushed stone
a2,400 lbs donated Milorganite®
Community Garden after Sandy. Photo by Susan Freiman
A
s they say, it takes a village, and
that was never more evident
when members of the Piermont
Community Garden began its outreach
to rebuild after the destruction of Super
Storm Sandy.
THE PLAN
Last December, a small group of
members met to create a plan to restore
the garden. Restoration efforts were
ambitious, and funds would need to
be raised. A decision was made not to
replace the wooden bed frames outlining the member plots, nor the woodchip pathways. Rather, the plan was
to create a more sustainable garden
from future storms and water erosion,
replacing the bed frames with brick
walkways. Also a new irrigation system was planned, with underground
piping and shorter hoses at select stations, thus eliminating the need to
drag 100-foot hoses throughout the
garden. And, with the new design
and brick paths, the garden would
be able to invite wheelchair-bound
members. (Two raised gardening beds
were made and are now fully used.) FUNDRAISING
Efforts to raise funds began with
Community Garden after restoration. Photo by Susan Freiman
creating a Facebook ‘Fundrzr’ page to
solicit funds. Donation jars were placed
in Piermont shops and restaurants, and
garden members collected from family
and friends. Revenue came from many
sources; members, residents, village
patrons, Piermont Chamber of Commerce, Piermont Civic Association,
and the Lanza Foundation. Building
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materials and garden supplies too were
received from Lowe’s Home Improvement Center and Beckerle Lumber. The garden applied for and received
a grant from Kitchen Gardener’s International’s ”Sow it Forward” program,
which included cash, seeds and a
gift certificate for Gardeners Supply
catalog. And, the Piermont Commu-
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nity Garden was one of five community gardens in the county awarded a
one-year supply of Milorganite organic
nitrogen fertilizer.
ACTION
On a picture-perfect April weekend,
volunteers gathered to begin the task to
install permanent walkways. Carmine
Gizzo Landscape, a Valhalla-based garden designer, was on hand with hIs
staff to teach brick-laying techniques
to teams of volunteers. Besides garden members, help came from many
sources, including members of the
Piermont Rowing Club, students from
the Tappan Zee High School Lion’s
Club and Girls Lacrosse Team, neighbors and friends of the garden, and
even strangers from other towns, who
all worked together to level walkways
and pass over 9,000 bricks into the garden.
~Mary Lukens
Mimi's AD NEW.indd 1
Join Us! The
Piermont Civic Association is a nonprofit
group dedicated to the betterment of Piermont. Thanks
to membership dues, numerous fundraising events and
countless hours of volunteer work, Piermont has its Newsletter, Main Street has its trees, bike rack and flower pots,
Kane Park has its gazebo and the Community Playgroup,
Empire Hose and PAL have received generous donations,
to name a few PCA accomplishments. Please mail this
application to: Piermont Civic Association, Box 454, Piermont, NY 10968 I have enclosed: $_____2013 PCA Family
Membership ($25 includes the Newsletter)
NAME___________________________________________________
ADDRESS_____________________________ZIP_______________
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2/27/09 12:37:27 PM
2/27/09 2:00:28 PM
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Piermont Summer 2013
PCA Village Yard Sale. Photo by
Sally Savage
Mayor Chris Sanders welcomes
Native American leaders to
Piermont as part of the Two Row
Wampum Renewal Campaign
event in August.
Photo by Tom O’Reilly
Jack D’Amico reviews the Bastille
Day lineup on Main Street.
Photo by Betsy Franco Feeney
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Volunteers Sylvia Welch and
Richard Esnard at the Piermont
Train Station. Photo by Sally
Savage. Lauren Rudolf paints
at Chamber of Commerce ART
Walk. Photo by Sally Savage.
Old Number Seven Band at
PAL Labor Day Music Festival.
Photo by Margaret Grace. PCA
Outdoor Movie Night. Photo by
Sally Savage. Two Row paddlers leave Piermont for the UN.
Photo by Richard Benfield.
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The Front Line
Report Suspicious Activities
Piermont is a safe community, but if
you see activities that seem suspicious,
report them to the police immediately. Chief Michael O’Shea, Piermont
Police Department, said that most of
the burglaries and larceny that occur
are through open doors and windows.
“Please lock your car, don’t leave valuables in plain view and secure your
house. Make a closed home report with
the police before going away. The PD
email is police@piermont-ny.com and
my email is chief@piermont-ny.com.”
If you report suspicious activity to
the police, you do not have to leave
your name, noted Chief O’Shea. For
emergencies call 911 and for non emergencies call 359-0240.
Rubbish/Debris Collection
Tom Temple, Supervisor of the Piermont Department of Public Works
(DPW), said that the Department of
Public Works will start its leaf collection during the week of October 21st
and run through to December 6th.
“Please place all leaves on the edge
of your property,” he advised. “The
leaves should be free and clear of any
rocks, brush or other debris that may
cause a blockage in our leaf collection
machine.”
Please do not block the sidewalks
with leaf pile or bags. This causes a
public safety issue by forcing pedestrians to walk in the roadways. Leaves
that are going to be bagged should be
done in biodegradable bags. The DPW
supplies these to Village residents for
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free, while supplies last, and can be
obtained from the DPW garage on
Piermont Avenue during regular DPW
business hours. The Village encourages
the use of the biodegradable bags and
will not pick up leaves that have been
placed in plastic bags. This and other
information is available on the Village
of Piermont website at www.piermontny.org.
Fire Department
Looks for Volunteers
The Piermont Fire Department is
constantly looking for new members
to join its ranks. Anyone who is interested in joining the Department should
come to the firehouse on any Monday
evening between 7-9 pm.
~Ron Derven
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Future Of The Marsh continued from page 1
1993, she spearheaded Piermont Landing’s policy of banning use of herbicides and synthetic fertilizers for
landscape maintenance, earning it the
Governors Award for Pollution Prevention in 2002. Now, Marthe heard that
the state was planning to use hundreds
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of gallons of herbicides across Pier
Road from the Landing. She immediately alerted her Piermont neighbors,
and in June, a group of concerned citizens formed the Piermont Marsh Alliance to stop the proposed eradication.
In late July The Piermont Marsh Alliance (PMA), following rigorous weeks
of press and petitioning, was invited
to make its case before a joint meeting
with Conybeare, the Thruway Authority, the DEC, the engineers selected for
the eradication project, and representatives from Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper.
The PMA put its position on the
table: the use of herbicides in the Piermont Marsh was totally unacceptable.
There would be unknown and longlasting harmful consequences for plant
and animal life within the Marsh, the
waterway, and the neighboring communities. The Phragmites, those gathered were reminded, are a cornerstone
of Piermont’s visual world. Replacing
200+ acre Piermont Marsh vista with
a scorched-earth viewshed, devoid of
the birds, reptiles, fish and fauna during the years it would take to attempt
to re-establish other plant types is
unthinkable.
3/3/09 1:55:50 PM
500
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Herbicides are not the Village’s only
problem with the DEC plan. “Phragmites greatly helped us during Superstorm Sandy,” scientist and group
member Klaus Jacob explained. “Its
dense mass and uniquely tall habit
spared us the devastating wave-action
impacts in the areas adjacent to the
marsh.” Jacob, an expert on ocean rise,
compared that to the devastation that
occurred on the unprotected shores to
the North. Native species such as Spartina, a grass that now exists in very
small patches in the marsh, simply
lack the height and density needed in
the face of the 10 foot storm surge with
5 foot waves that occurred during in
Hurricane Sandy.
Additionally, in the Piermont Marsh,
Phragmites serves an important function as a filter for many chemical toxins and pollutants found in the Sparkill
Creek, one of the most polluted bodies
of water in New York State. Throughout the world Phragmites is used in
constructed marsh environments specifically for the purpose of water filtration. This significant benefit would
be lost if Phragmites were to be eradicated.
continued on next page
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Future Of The Marsh continued from previous page
At the meeting, Columbia University climatologist
Dorothy Peteet, asked to attend by Mayor Chis Sanders, spoke to the history of the Piermont Marsh. Dorothy
reminded those gathered that the 7000 year old Piermont
Marsh with its 1025 acres (just 200 + acres above water)
caps a vast store of carbon, and if the marsh were to be
lost, through bad management or natural catastrophe,
those gasses would enter the atmosphere to disastrous
effect. While she reminded all present of the importance
of plant biodiversity to the health of the marsh­—the fundamental reason HRNERR has been promoting its eradication program—she cautioned against unconsidered
action, expressing grave concern regarding the DEC proposal, warning “Do no harm”.
In the following weeks, now months after the DEC
headed down the troubling road of Phragmites eradication, Conybeare asked the Piermont Marsh Alliance for
alternative suggestions for the mitigation dollars that
have been allocated for this project.
Members of the Piermont Marsh Alliance and the
Sparkill Creek Watershed Alliance are working to present proposals focusing on the health of the Sparkill Creek
by identifying the pollutants in the Creek and creating
action plans to improve its water quality. There are also
proposals being discussed to examine ways to re-introNEW ADS to size.indd
duce native plants, not by destroying existing habitats,
but by expanding the surface area of the marsh and planting native plants there. Piermont Mayor Chris Sanders
has suggested that we need to address the presence of
the MRSA bacteria, which are anti-biotic resistant and the
source of hard to treat infections, found in our stretch of
the Hudson River. Orangetown Supervisor Andy Stuart
has suggested a “green infrastructure” project to reduce
runoff into the Sparkill Creek. Many community projects
are also out there looking for funding—dredging Piermont
Bay to allow added access to our waterfront, thus increasing recreational and business opportunities, repairing the
dock at the end of the Pier, undermined by wood borers,
and an important launch point for rescue operations on
the Hudson, reinforcing Pier Road and the North Shore
sea wall damaged by storm surges. Everywhere you look
there is a need for funding. Remembering that this money
is a give-back for the environmental impacts accompanying years of bridge construction, one thing has become
clear—it must not be allocated to projects that create their
own environmental havoc.
As summer of 2013 winds to a close and pile driving
begins for the new Tappan Zee Bridges, the over-arching
message from Piermont to the Thruway Authority and
DEC regarding the Phragmites Eradication Plan is “Cease
and Desist”.
~Margaret Grace
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7
3/6/09 11:22:31 AM
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THE PIERMONT
NEWSLETTER Box 454
Piermont, NY 10968
540 Piermont Ave, Piermont, NY 10968
845.365.2505 or visit our home www.usakennedy.com
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Location
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Bedrooms
3
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3
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List Price
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Sold Date
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If you are thinking of placing your property on the market, purchasing one or simply renting, we are
always here for you. We can also prepare a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) for you. Please feel
free to contact us with any questions you may have about today’s Real Estate market.